Effect of urbanization intensity on nest-site selection by Eurasian Magpies ( Pica pica )
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Effect of urbanization intensity on nest-site selection by Eurasian Magpies (Pica pica) Yu Xu 1
&
Zhaoyang Cao 1 & Bin Wang 2
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract As urban growth continues at an ever-increasing rate, it is important for city architects and city governments to understand the ecological effects of urbanization. As an ideal candidate for studies of urbanization, Eurasian Magpies (Pica pica) have been studied extensively in terms of nest placement in urban environments. However, there have been few quantitative studies on the effect of urbanization on nest-site selection. In this study, we investigated nests of Eurasian Magpies in a city in northern China. The results showed that magpies preferred to nest in tall deciduous broadleaf trees, especially Platanus and Populus spp., in sites with high tree densities, sitting them in a fork of branches, at 15.1 ± 0.3 m (n = 364) above ground level. Magpies in the inner city areas preferred to nest in taller trees within a more wooded area and placed their nests further up the trees, compared with birds in the newer suburbs. We suggest that the selection of nest sites is an adaptation to the increasing intensity of urbanization, having important consequences in terms of avoiding predators and human disturbance. These results provide useful insights into understanding the nature of the relationship between birds and urban habitats, and will be helpful for future landscape and urban planning in north China. Keywords Adaptation . Corvid . Habitat selection . Nest height . Synurbization . Urban environment
Introduction As the global human population increases and economies continue to develop, the pace of urbanization is also accelerating worldwide. As a result of changes in the abiotic and biotic environment during urbanization, urban areas differ from natural environments in many ways (Johnson and Munshi-South 2017; Jokimäki et al. 2017). For example, urban environments are characterized by high levels of human-caused disturbances and habitat fragmentation (Jokimäki et al. 2017). The environmental change can affect morphology, physiology, behavior, and reproductive traits of a species (Shochat et al. 2006), thus species richness and abundance (Grimm et al. 2008). As a consequence, ecological processes and the evolution of life might be shaped divergently between urban and non-urban
* Bin Wang [email protected] 1
School of Life Sciences, Guizhou Normal University, 550001 Guiyang, China
2
Institute of Ecology, Key Laboratory of Southwest China Wildlife Resources Conservation (Ministry of Education), China West Normal University, 637002 Nanchong, China
environments (McDonnell and MacGregor-Fors 2016; Johnson and Munshi-South 2017). Therefore, understanding the ecological effects of urbanization is important for species conservation or pest management (Johnson and MunshiSouth 2017) and, thus, may contribute to landscape and urban planning (Jokimäki et al. 2017). The Eurasian Magpie (Pica pica) is a corvid speci
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